Posted in 2025
The easiest way to find an AWS instance
- Jan 25 2025
For some reason AWS makes browsing their instance types surprisingly hard. I’ve found Vantage’s instance viewer the best way to figure out the best option.
A NY Times piece on Mt Bachelor
- Jan 24 2025
Our not-so-little local mountain got a write up in the NY Times, which is always fun to see. It’s about a local effort to try and buy the mountain (~$200M, so some very rich locals..). Lots of funny little nods to the culture of Bend:
Noah Smith on the LA fires
- Jan 23 2025
In general, the misinformation, finger-pointing, and political opportunism flew fast and furious. But if you remained calm, resisted the urge to dunk on your political enemies, and watched the situation unfold, I think there were a few important signals you could extract from the storm of information. Basically, the lessons I take away from the horrific L.A. fires are:
Wool & Sand are solid books
- Jan 22 2025
We watched the Silo series on Apple TV, and it was pretty solid. I’ve gotten into the habit of trying to read books after they make shows about them, and the books tend to be better than the shows :) In this case, I enjoyed both.
Stack Overflow’s decline
- Jan 21 2025
The volume of questions asked on StackOverflow started to fall quickly after ChatGPT was released in November 2022, and the drop continues into 2025 at alarming speed. Fresh data shows how bad things are, courtesy of software engineer, Theodore R. Smith, a top 1% StackOverflow contributor. He shared the number of questions posted by users in this Gist dump:
International travel and community
- Jan 20 2025
My wife and I took off from Portland in February 2018, and ended up working and traveling for ~2 years after that. Luckily in January 2020, we ended up settling down in Bend, at the planned end of our travels. We’ve been here for 5 years now, and we’re about ready to take off again!
Foreign Policy Live: Fareed Zakaria’s ‘Age of Revolutions’
- Jan 19 2025
I really enjoyed this episode of Foreign Policy Live with Fareed Zakaria where he discusses his book Age of Revolutions.
Alternative company structures
- Jan 18 2025
I ran into this Ask HN post from Dave Snider, which asks about alternative company structures:
Understanding maps
- Jan 17 2025
I’ve always enjoyed maps, and they still kind of blow my mind when I really think about it. Especially with hiking and international travel, the sense of space in a place is always something I have a hard time intuiting, and maps are a starting point to understanding, as well as geopolitics :)
Travel bag research
- Jan 16 2025
I’ve been looking into good bags to use for hiking and work travel, as I often want to combine a work trip and a hiking trip. The onebag reddit is kind of overwhelming, but a reasonable place to start research on this.
The Camino de Costa Rica
- Jan 15 2025
I’m hoping to do more hiking this upcoming year. Last summer my wife and I did the Tahoe Rim Trail, which was a great hike within driving distance. With a goal to do more international travel, we’re looking at doing the Camino de Costa Rica later this year. It sounds like there are a number of options for places to stay along the route, so camping is somewhat optional, and lots of local food options.
An updated vision for Read the Docs
- Jan 14 2025
I’m excited that we published our 2025 vision for Read the Docs. It’s been a long-term goal to build more support for other documentation tools, and better UX for documentation authors and readers.
AI in tech writing roundup
- Jan 13 2025
The topic of AI is all the rage in the tech writing industry of late. This round up from Kayce Basques is a great overview of all the various use cases, and the status of them in the industry:
The Anti-Social Century
- Jan 12 2025
I’ve been a fan of Derek Thompson for a while now, and his podcast Plain English. I’m also excited about his upcoming book Abundance with Ezra Klein. He is one of the best writers, and I enjoy his beat around technology and social issues.
Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti’s technical writing predictions for 2025
- Jan 11 2025
Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti is a blogger I’ve enjoyed reading for a while now, and I wanted to highlight his post on 2025 predictions.
The tech ad market seems slow currently
- Jan 10 2025
With the work we’ve been doing on EthicalAds, I see some part of the tech ad market. It definitely feels like things are slow right now. Starting in Q4 2024, we’ve seen a slow down in advertising and a large uptick in turnover in marketing departments.
The 2020 Oregon Wildfires
- Jan 09 2025
My heart breaks for the people in Los Angeles, who are dealing with major wildfires at the moment. These stories are always hard for me, because I’ve had my own experience with wildfire in 2020, and I hate that I have to relive it every year seeing so many other people suffer similar traumas. This is that story.
Exploring CSS Variables
- Jan 08 2025
We’re looking at ways to make Read the Docs more customizable while using web components to build our UI. One of the ways we’re exploring is using CSS variables to allow users to customize the look and feel of their documentation.
Exploring CSS Variables
- Jan 08 2025
We’re looking at ways to make Read the Docs more customizable while using web components to build our UI. One of the ways we’re exploring is using CSS variables to allow users to customize the look and feel of their documentation.
Steven Pinker on Progress
- Jan 06 2025
I’ve enjoyed Our World in Data and Steven Pinker for a long time for their zoomed out perspective on progress in the world.
AI makes computers do what I want them to do
- Jan 05 2025
I am trying to do more writing, and while I love my git-based blog, I also wanted a nice way to author content on my phone. Using Substack for that has been great, but I wanted to keep the articles in sync between the two posts.
Podcasts I’ve been enjoying
- Jan 04 2025
I’ve been listening to Ezra since his days at Vox, and his podcast is always a good listen. I appreciate the wide range of topics he covers, and his guests are always interesting.
Podcasts I’ve been enjoying
- Jan 04 2025
I’ve been listening to Ezra since his days at Vox, and his podcast is always a good listen. I appreciate the wide range of topics he covers, and his guests are always interesting.
2024 Tech Wrapups
- Jan 03 2025
I really enjoyed this post from Andy Pavlo, Databases in 2024: A Year in Review. I’ve been looking at DuckDB for a few use cases, and always love the ability to add things to Postgres instead of spinning up a new service!
Money and Identity
- Jan 02 2025
I’ve seen more and more people in my life retire lately, and it often comes with a loss of identity. It’s hard to see folks who have been strongly defined by their job lose that identity, and not have a good sense of how to replace it.
The Best Introduction to LLMs I’ve Found
- Jan 01 2025
I’ve been getting more and more excited about Large Language Models (LLMs) lately, and have been inspired by Simon Willison’s call for more people to do link blogging.
